About this podcast
Get to know the shocking highs and lows of the biggest stories in music.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 43 episodes
- Trailer · 1 min · Season 6There are bands who split and reunite so often it stops meaning anything. And then there's The Smiths. Five years. Four albums. A string of hits that still sound like nothing…
- 8. What the World is Waiting For · 22 min · Season 4 Episode 8As Tony Wilson once told Newsweek Magazine in 1990 - "If there is any idea at all, it is about community and collective strength. There is power in people being lovely to each…
- 7. Regret · 18 min · Season 4 Episode 7In 1995, after five years of court cases, silence and mounting expectation, The Stone Roses are finally back. The Second Coming has been released, and a Glastonbury headline slot…
- 6. Shoot You Down · 24 min · Season 4 Episode 6Barbados was supposed to save them. In early 1992, The Happy Mondays are flown to the Caribbean to record their next album. Fresh from the success of Pills ’n’ Thrills and…
- 5. World in Motion · 19 min · Season 4 Episode 51990 does not begin quietly. London burns during the Poll Tax riots. Strangeways prison erupts in Manchester. Margaret Thatcher stands outside Downing Street for the last time…
- 4. Loose Fit · 25 min · Season 4 Episode 4By 1989, Manchester is no longer underground, it is now unavoidable. Baggy jeans, bucket hats and loose jumpers become a uniform. Market stalls and record shops replace boutiques…
- 3. Twenty Four Hour Party People · 20 min · Season 4 Episode 3In 1985 two Manchester bands release their first records on the very same day. The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays barely register beyond the city. They are promising, scruffy……
- 2. Movement · 22 min · Season 4 Episode 2March 1983. New Order take to the stage on Top of the Pops to perform their new single, Blue Monday. The machines misfire, the sequencer slips and Bernard Sumner glances upwards…
- 1. Wilderness · 18 min · Season 4 Episode 1Manchester in the late 1970s is a city in retreat. Industry is collapsing and jobs are disappearing. Whole neighbourhoods feel abandoned. Out of that stillness comes a stark…
- 8. My Way · 21 min · Season 3 Episode 9In the wake of their final show, the Sex Pistols split, torn apart by addiction, betrayal, and manipulation. John Lydon returned to London, disgusted. Steve Jones and Paul Cook…
- 7. No Fun. Implosion in the USA. · 20 min · Season 3 Episode 8By the end of 1977, the Sex Pistols sat at the top of the UK charts… while simultaneously hitting rock bottom. Sid Vicious was imploding, his partner Nancy Spungen was fuelling…
- 6. The Album, The Outrage and the Court Case · 21 min · Season 3 Episode 7After the chaos of their Jubilee riverboat stunt and the media storm around God Save the Queen, the Pistols were marked men. Attacked in the streets, vilified in the press, and…
- 5. Anarchy on the Thames · 19 min · Season 3 Episode 61977, and as Britain prepared to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, the Sex Pistols were plotting something else entirely. Fresh from being dropped by two major labels, they…
- 4. Cancelled · 22 min · Season 3 Episode 5In the aftermath of the Bill Grundy interview, the Sex Pistols became Britain’s most notorious band, not for their music, but for the chaos that followed. To some, they were a…
- 3. The Filth and the Fury · 19 min · Season 3 Episode 4In just three months, the Sex Pistols went from unknowns to the most feared band in Britain. After headlining the infamous 100 Club Punk Festival, they landed a major-label deal…
- 2. Year Zero · 23 min · Season 3 Episode 3Britain in the summer of 1976 was hot, angry, on strike and broke; a country on the brink. In the shadows, four raw, unpolished young punks were limbering up on the sidelines…
- 1. No Future · 18 min · Season 3 Episode 2“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” spat a deflated Johnny Rotten before walking off stage in San Francisco. The Sex Pistols were finished. One album, a handful of…
- 8. Not Nineteen Forever · 24 min · Season 2 Episode 8So here we are, twenty years on... The UK indie guitar scene was a brief, bright moment where exciting new bands emerged from all corners of the UK, and made themselves available…
- 7. Bang Bang You're Dead · 16 min · Season 2 Episode 7Just six action-packed years after the start of the UK indie sleaze music scene, The Word magazine coins the derisory term “Landfill Indie” to describe the oversaturation of…
- 6. When The Sun Goes Down · 21 min · Season 2 Episode 6The UK indie guitar music scene hits the tabloids. Johnny Borrell, Pete Doherty and Luke Pritchard partner up with A-List celebrity girlfriends. Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse…
